Hershey News 1956-09-13

              HERSHEY NEWS
Vol. 4 -4:450-1) HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA, SEPTEMBER 13, 1956 No. 37
U.S. Army Field Band In M.S. Hershey Day Tribute
Milton Hershey School
Auditorium Scene Of
Memorial Concert
Major Chester E. Whiting Captain Robert
Band's Commander'
Is Distinguished
Soldier-Musician
When Major Chester E. Whiting
raises his hands to give the downbeat
to his 100-piece U.S. Army Field
Band at tonight's M. S. Hershey
Day concert at the Milton Hershey
School, more than musical knowledge
and conducting ability are represent-t4
j. his° presence.- A long -and i
pressive career as both soldier and
musician in peace and war have
qualified him to lead this great musi-cal
organization.
Then head of the music department
of the Malden, Mass. schools, Whiting
was appointed a warrant officer band
leader in the Massachusetts National
Guard in 1923. Shortly after the out-break
of World War Two his unit
was called into Federal Service and,
in 1942, sailed for the South Pacific.
There, Major Whiting organized
and conducted the famous Americal
Division Band on the island of Bou-gainville.
The bandsmen under Whit-ing's
command served as infantry-men,
litter bearers and communica-tions
men during the bloody fight-ing
on Bougainville and Guadalca-nal
in the early stages of the Pa-cific
war. For his devotion to duty
and leadership under fire, Major
Whiting was awarded the coveted
Combat Infantry Badge, the Legion
of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal.
In 1944, it was decided in Washing-ton
to organize a band of combat
infantrymen. This band, to be know
as the First Combat Infantry Band,
was to travel throughout the nation
on bond selling tours. Major Whiting
was selected to organize, command
and conduct the unique band.
From this beginning evolved the
present United States Army Field
Band, the Army's traveling hand.
Major Whiting has been in command
since its inception. Under his leader-ship
the band has toured Canada,
Mexico, Europe and the British Isles,
as well as every state in the United
States, as goodwill representatives of
the Department of the Army.
The American Bandmasters' Asso-ciation
has elected Major Whiting to
its Board of Directors in recognition
of his contributions to music and for
his achievements with the Army's
largest touring band.
Recently he was the recipient of
another honor. He was made honor-ary
lifetime member of the Zembo
Shrine Band in Washington, D.C.
He is the second person to be so
honored, the first being the immortal
John Philip Sousa.
Captain Bierly
Captain Robert L. Bierly is the
Executive Officer and Assistant
L. Bierly
Sergeant First Class
Paul V. Henry, Narrator
Band Leader of the U. S. Army Field
Band.
Captain Bierly is a native of Clear-field,
Pennsylvania. He has two de-grees
in the field of music and
taught in Clearfield and in Lynch-burg,
Virginia, prior to World War
Two.
The tall, distinguished officer en-tered
the Army as a bandmaster with
the 246th Coast Artillery Regiment
of the Virginia National Guard, from
Lynchburg, Virginia. He was later
transferred to the Regular Army and
assigned to the 88th "Blue Devil"
Division which he accompanied on
its fight in the Rome-Arno cam-paign
in Italy.
Captain Bierly, then Warrant Of-ficer,
organized both the Division
Artillery Band and the 88th Division
Band. He wrote the official march of
the division, entitled the "Blue
Devils," a task, along with his many
other outstanding accomplishments,
which resulted in the award of the
Army's Commendation Medal.
Sgt. Henry
Deems Taylor, noted music critic,
once said that the narrator of a
musical program has the hardest job
of all. If this be true the IL S.
Army Field Band is fortunate in
having the services of Sergeant First
Class Paul V. Henry of Malden, Mas-sachusetts.
Henry narrates each concert by
this internationally famous band as
a radio show since most of the con-certs
are broadcast.
In addition to narrating the con-certs,
Sergeant Henry is a member
of the 30-voice "Soldiers Chorus"
which is a featured portion of each
performance.
There are three members of the
Henry family in the 100 men of the
Army Field Band. Brother Ralph
is a cellist and brother Ted is leader
(Continued ea Page Twat
"The Kings of the High-way,"
the 100-piece United
States Army Field Band will
present an hour and a half
free public concert here this
evening (Thursday) as the
community and other friends
of Hershey join in the seventh
annual M. S. Hershey Day ob-servance
in the Milton Her-shey
School auditorium.
The big band, which held
an audience spellbound in New
York City's Carnegie Hall, is
directed by Major Chester E.
Whiting, renowned soldier-musician.
Included in the
ranks of the concert band is
the famous 30-voice Soldiers'
Chorus under the direction of
Master Sergeant Arthur V.
Donofrio.
The carefully arranged
concert by the elite Army
musical organization head-lines
the program which
will honor the memory of
the late M. S. Hershey,
founder of the town and its
industry, on the ninety-ninth
anniversary of his
birth.
The tribute to the man who
gave unstintingly of his wis-
Llom icLwa1l as his lautLeria.1
wealth to his community is
sponsored by the Hershey
Rotary Club each year. The
observance is a community-wide
affair and the general
public is invited to attend.
There is no admission charge
and no tickets are required.
The concert gets under way
at eight o'clock.
In keeping with the purpose
of the evening's program, a
spoken tribute to Milton S.
Hershey will be given by Dr.
John 0. Hershey, superintend-ent
of the Milton Hershey
School and chairman of the
Rotary Club's Service Activi-ties
Committee. The outstand-ing
boys' glee club of the Mil-ton
Hershey School will also
be heard as a traditional part
of the memorial program.
Richard L. Uhrich, Rotary
Twp. School Enrollment
Is Reported At 2,661
• A total of 2,661 pupils are enrolled
I this year in the Derry Township
Schools, according to a report issued
by Dr. L. Eugene Jacques, school
district superintendent.
The figures -.show a nearly even
division of students in the elementary
and junior-senior high grades, al-though
the larger number of pupils is
in the top half of the school system.
Grades Seven through Twelve and
the Secondary Special group show
a total enrollment of 1,446.
There are 1,215 pupils enrolled in
Kindergarten through Sixth Grade,
and including the elementary special
group.
The enrollment by grades:
Kindergarten, 172; First, 215; Sec-ond,
178; Third, 179; Fourth, 188;
Fifth, 150; Sixth, 115; elementary
special, 18—total, 1,215.
Seventh, 146; Eighth, 113; Ninth,
353; Tenth, 292; Eleventh, 283;
Twelfth, 220; secondary special, 39---
total, 1,446.
MILTON SNAVELY HERSHEY
"His deeds are his monument; his life is our inspiration."
Club secretary, will extend
the organization's greetings to
the persons gathered to par-ticipate
in the M. S. Hershey
Day tribute in the auditorium
and will also introduce Major
Whiting and the band.
The invocation will be given
by the Rotary Club chaplain,
the Reverend Thomas W.
Guinivan, pastor of Hershey's
First United Brethren Church.
Current Rotary officers are
William Kishpaugh, Presid-dent
; George Hoerner, vice-president;
Richard Uhrich,
secretary; and George Bartels,
treasurer.
The 1956 M. S. Hershey Day
Committee is composed of
Arthur R. Whiteman, chair-man,
and John B. Sollenberger
D. Paul Witmer and Theodore
Banks.
Tonight's memorial obser-vance
is the seventh of its
kind. M. S. Hershey Day was
instituted in 1950 and has, be..
come a community tradition.
Over the years, its programs
have brought to Hershey .such
outstanding music attractions
as the Harrisburg Symphony
Orchestra and Harrisburg
Choral Society, Lancaster's
Hamilton Chorus; famous solo
harpist Robert Maxwell and
others.
Also in past years a number
of noted guest speakers ap-peared
in various M. S. Her-shey
Day tributes, including
Dr. Grove Patterson, editor-in-
chief of the Toledo (Ohio)
Blade, and Dr. Everett Need-ham
Case, ninth president of
Colgate University who ad-dressed
the gathering in 1954
when the dedication of the
Milton Snavely Hershey Mem-orial
Building for elementary
school students of Derry
Township was the dominant
feature of the program.
Hershey News
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Hershey, Pa.
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